LM Wood says, "Blurring of boundaries between craft and fine art and between traditional and contemporary art forms, I seek to explore the distinctions between media, process and function. My interest is in creating hybrid works that exist in the “muddy middle” between various areas of study.

Drawing inspiration from the “mysteries” of the photographic image - the element of memory is important in these works. For similar reasons, I am also drawn to working with textiles. Much like the photograph, textiles also hold memory; either created through the making or in the using of them.

Technologies allow for the mutability of visual imagery like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Going “digital” allows for new ways of seeing, interacting with, and producing works of art. It also raises questions of authorship and the physicality of the artist’s hand. Both the physical and manifestations of physicality is a common thread throughout all my work.

My desire is to make art that tells a story - not only through how a work is made but also what it “says” to the viewer. Resulting in works that become the artifacts of the human experience."

LM Wood is an experimental artist living and working in North Carolina. Originally from Minnesota, she pursued a variety of careers before discovering art in college. She received an MFA in Photography from University of Cincinnati and an MFA in Fibers from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL. Having been educated in a variety of diverse artistic styles and practices, Wood navigates between the domains of art, craft and technology. Her work is a blend of digital technologies and traditional processes, resulting in hybrid works that elevate process and craft to “high art”.

Wood has presented and exhibited her work nationally, including exhibitions at Museum of Design (Atlanta, GA), Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (Asheville, NC) and North Dakota Museum of Art (Grand Forks, ND). She has also won several awards for her experimental works, including a grant from Kentucky Foundation for Women for her earlier research into combining digital technologies and traditional photographic processes and a Visual Arts Fellowship from North Carolina Arts Council for her digitally printed fabric quilts.

She joined the faculty at Elon University (NC) in 2000, where she teaches courses including: Introduction to Intermedia, The Altered Image in Digital Art and Painting with the Computer and The Study of Fibers. Other courses she Other courses she has taught include: Introduction to Digital Art, Static Imaging, Interactive Art, Web Art, Professional Practices and Senior Seminar.

Magdéleine Ferru says, "Different style photographer, what I feel connects with what I have seen, what I have lived.... To live abroad, learning new languages,
traditions; Discovering other beliefs, religion, lifestyle....Witnessing other's life through the eye of my camera, bringing it into my travel photos.

I have observed and now i feel: getting it all out through collages and mises-en-scene. I explore those feelings as well as matter : the body,
the identity and society, human nature, our environment, natural or urban...

Mix of portraits/nude and landscapes/travels (to the widest meaning), my photos are the result of my years of simply leaving with others, in a world constantly changing."

Magdéleine -JustMagd- is a french photographer, who, after studying photography in Montréal in 2002, has been traveling and trying to discover as much of the world as she could for 10 years.

It is her exhibition "Tokyo dans mon Keitai" in Tokyo in 2009 (under the patronage of the French Ambassy) that makes her want to show more of her work. She, then gain self-confidence and obtain awards in different photo contest. In 2010, she decided to go back to school to learn graphic design, and got into a 5 months program in Montauban. Learning website building basics was part of the course, but what really caught her interest was studying lay out, designing books or magazines. She did a 2 weeks internship at a design agency in Ibiza, and contributed as photographer/graphic designer to expat magazines in Seoul.

She attended workshops "Traveling Photos" with Jacques Sierpinski in Toulouse, and "Family album" avec Alain Laboile in Aix en Provence, using each meeting, course, shops, etc...as a great opportunity to learn from experienced photographers.

Some of her projects are now brought to life through hand-made unique books; MagD upcycles, makes, creates, mixing matter to her visual work.

Memories : Fragment of a life. I reach
that age when the adult I grew
up around, are now older and leaving us... And I wonder, what will stay of them in me, what will I remember last, what will fade first...; A gesture, an expression, a color, a
smile, a sound... All kept, tiny, deep in me.

REST IN PIECES by Magdeleine Ferru(Click on image for larger view)

Rest in Pieces-
(Reflection on each other's identity and the human body : I question myself about our link to the body, and the consequences of this body display on our soul, thought, spirit. Body as a simple thing that we love and desire? Or mirror of the human's deep feeling? What about forever youth? Should we be ashamed of growing old ?)

Mary Dondero says of her series “The Sky was Blue”, "As it happens I spend many hours driving. This provides me with time to daydream or observe the landscape as I travel through one environment and into another at varying speeds. While driving I’ve noticed that the sky is omnipresent, unpredictable and beautiful.

During one of my daily trips, the ever-changing sky inspired me to create a personal project meant to trace or imply my varying states of mind. I decided to associate skies that are overcast, dreary, bright or blue, with frames of mind and oscillating moods. My creative intention in this project is to visually express my ideas or feelings regarding the constant state of impermanence in which we live.

While pulled over to the side of the road, I used my phone to capture each of the images in this project. To give emphasis to fleeting states of being, I digitally printed the imagery on what seems to be fragile, gampi paper. Japanese gampi is tissue thin paper made from plant fibers and is considered to be a noble fiber noted for its richness and strength.
While processing this work I have intentionally saved accidental rips or printing flaws on the paper as a way of emphasizing chance. To further support or represent transitory states of being, I allow the thin tissue-like paper to crinkle or fold, I then present each image floating in a shadow box. These images are simple captures of the sky that I have selectively edited or cropped while looking through the viewfinder. By deliberately resolving all “photographic” work at the time of capture I literally have no post digital editing to accomplish other than to send the image through the printer. My intention is to create artwork that focuses on abstract images built on reductive color palettes, expressing the ephemeral."

Mary Dondero considers herself to be an interdisciplinary artist. Her works are held in both private and public collections such as, the Naestved International Print Studio in Denmark, the Newport Art Museum in RI and the Zion Human History Museum, Utah.

Dondero is one of the founding artists of Imago Foundation for the Arts and an artist member at Providence Art Club. For the past six years she has served on the Board of Directors for the Bristol Art Museum where she serves as Curator of Exhibitions. Dondero is a tenured Professor of Art at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.

Paul Ivanushka says, "I enjoy history. Looking back in time. Be it religion or abandoned farm equipment. Both are heavy with artifacts and meaning. The meanings are often vague and blurred from time passing. Both are rich in relics that can be tangibly photographed.

I am working with Polaroid film, and my daughters old Spectra camera. The image is highly abused, often left to complete development in a hip pocket, or too long in some chemical concoction. The resulting image is created largely by chance and abuse and resulting in an image that is vague and blurred. Like the relic being photographed."

THEY RULED THE EARTH by Paul Ivanushka(Click on image for larger view)

90 YEARS 1 by Peg ShawHonorable Mention(Click on image for larger view)

Peg Shaw says, " 90 Years ago my great uncle picked up his 16mm movie camera and filmed a family gathering. For years I’m sure the projected figures recalled fond memories for the viewers. But now, with no information on who what why, they are just the play of light and shadow. No sound. No color. I only recognize my grandmother’s smile.

The film breaks the afternoon down into frames per second, and within each frame is a story, and within each story very carefully chosen words. Like zooming into a photograph until it breaks down into pixels: moments turn into flickers.

Smile for the camera, smile at each other, hold a baby, hold hands - the intimacy catches my breath. This is where this work comes from: a deep intrigue for how we can connect across time and space. The way we can be so moved by an experience that isn’t ours. The way we can truly care for people we don’t know. Wings, flowers, grasses, roots become a physical overlay of how these connections could be revealed if only we could see all the layers of a moment at once.

This work is not about a home movie - this happened and then that happened. It’s about a quiet burst - all of this happened."

Peg Shaw’s work has always been an exploration in multi-media including photography, video, film, sound, and mixed media such as paint, charcoal, dirt, leaves, thorns, petals, eggshells, hair, thread, wire, and glass.

Her work has been shown nationally including solo exhibitions in Chicago and New York, and has won numerous awards in both photography and video, including awards from the Illinois Arts Council and Arts Midwest/NEA Regional. She is an Associate Professor in Photography/Video at Parkland College in Champaign, IL where she was recently awarded the 2016 Illinois Community College Trustees Association Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Award.

Born in Oak Park, Illinois, Shaw received her Master of Fine Arts in Photography from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Shaw lives in the woods with her family in a timberframe home they built by hand. She is a drummer that only makes noise in her basement. She is the middle child of five. She still loves her friends from junior high. She has a lake in Michigan that runs in her veins.

LARSON CHURCH FAN #1 by Rebecca Sexton Larson(Click on image for larger view)

Rebecca Sexton Larson says of her series, 'Church Fans' - Original hand painted black and white photographs, "My fascination with church fans came from the collected tattered gems that could be found tucked away in my grandmother’s bureau, closet and decorative vase on a foyer table.

Before air conditioning became popular or mainstream, churchgoers were very familiar with handheld fans. These simple cardboard fans, mounted on plain, flat wooden sticks were familiar as a way to keep cool during church services.

During the 1950s, “church fans” became routine in churches in the South. The fans characteristically displayed a biblical scene or spiritual still life on one side and an advertisement on the reverse. Funeral homes and local businesses were often featured prominently on many fans, with businesses donating hand fans to churches in return for the advertisement on the reverse side.

This body of work, Church Fans, is homage to the historical church fan in an attempt to revisit its spiritual imagery, its utilitarian form and rebirth as an artful symbol of worship. Today, church fans can still be seen at church related functions serving the same spiritual purposefulness as in the past."

Rebecca Sexton Larson is a Tampa based studio artist working with historic photographic processes. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in Fine Arts and a degree in Mass Communications. S

he was awarded Florida Individual Artist Fellowships in 1998, 2002, and 2008. In 2006, she received an Artist Enhancement Grant from the State of Florida and, in 2005, was commissioned by the City of Tampa to be Photographer Laureate for a year.

During the past 20 years, Sexton Larson has curated, lectured and exhibited work internationally at various arts institutions and organizations. Sexton Larson's photographs are in numerous major collections throughout the country, including: Polaroid, Progressive Corporate Art, Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), Holland and Knight Law Firm, Palace of the Governors, New Mexico Historical Museum, Candela Gallery Richmond VA, Museum of Fine Arts St. Pete and the Tampa Museum of Art.

CV

Grants, Fellowships and Awards:

2014 Creative Capital Professional Development Program

2008 Florida Individual Artist Fellowship

2006 Florida Artist Enhancement Grant

2005 Photographer Laureate, City of Tampa

2002 Florida Individual Artist Fellowship

1999 Featured artist for Polaroid Corporation “Test” On Line

1997 Florida Individual Artist Fellowship

1996 Honorable Mention, Florida Individual Artist Fellowship

1995 Emerging Artist Grant, Tampa-Hillsborough Arts Council

1990 Emerging Artist Grant, Tampa-Hillsborough Arts Council

Selected Collections and Commissions:

Polaroid International, Boston, MA

Progressive Corporate Art, Mayfield Village, OH

Graham Nash, Nash Editions/Crosby, Stills & Nash

The Pinhole Resource, San Lorenzo, NM

PharMerica, Inc., Tampa, FL

Holland and Knight Law Firm, Tampa, FL

Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL

Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL

Gulf Coast Museum of Art, Belleair, FL

City of Orlando, Florida Artists Collection, Orlando, FL

Coopers & Lybrand, Tampa, FL

Arthur Anderson, Tampa, FL

First Fidelity Investments, Tampa, FL

Hillsborough County Commission, County Building, Tampa, FL

Chamber of Commerce, Tampa, FL

Rick Mears, 4-Time Indianapolis 500 Champion, Jupiter, FL

South Trust Bank, Orlando, FL

Thermal Ceramics, Augusta, GA

Orlando County Commission, Orlando, FL

Amsouth Bank, Tampa, FL

TECO Reality, Tampa, FL

Tampa Bay Business Committee of the Arts 2004 Artwork/Award recipients

CHURCH FAN #6 by Rebecca Sexton Larson(Click on image for larger view)

CHURCH FAN #7 by Rebecca Sexton Larson(Click on image for larger view)

VIRTUAL FAMILY by Tamas Varga(Click on image for larger view)

Tamás Varga says, "Even as a kid I thought that its not an easy thing to create something real something true. One has to work hard to achieve that.

Today as a photographer I have the same belief. I accomplish most of my work in great format with cameras. Besides the masters of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the contemporary artists and tendencies affect my photos and me. In my projects I root back and deal in a recurring manner with the Central- Eastern European existence and its typical features (Godot) and I introduce social groups fighting against being stereotyped (vitiligo, healed and recovered cancer patients).

My main focus is the archaic wet plate collodion process. This technique in some aspects is still unreplaceable and unreplicable even by today standards and tools. My intention is not simply walk the road of those who are archaising, quite the opposite, I am intending to utilize the uniqueness of the pictures with fresh recent approach frequently merging the archaic procedure with digital imaging technologies (Project Virtual). Every tiny bit of the process of creating excites and thrills me. It’s a sophisticated and complicated feeling to imagine a picture; incubate the idea; prepare the materials for it and do the manual job with it. In the making we utilize our predecessors’ tools and knowledge and just than we expose and we don’t hang on the LCD. For me the craftsmanship is a value. The loneliness in the dark room, the direct contact with the material and the nature of the unrepeatable is attracting. As such the fact of creating palpable crafts one can hold in hand is mesmerizing. I know its not hip and trendy today. My aim is to cultivate this with a 21th century mind-set taking into consideration the latest trends and utilizing the accomplishments of the modern era."

VIRTUAL PROJECT:

The photo from its very appearance pushing the notional limits of space time reality virtuality truth false. The photo by determining a time and space provides the illusion of reality thus frames it into a 2 dimension entity. The improvements of digital technology brought a turning point and an upset in the belief of "the subject was there". The artificial digital imaging technologies can bring unreal wrath realities to life. The thoughtful ideas of Roland Barthes on the truth and indisputable accurate authenticity seems to be shaken in our visual world. In one hand with big and even larger cameras photos are taken in studios and outside while on the other hand pictures are taken of real existing (internet, google, archaic glass layers, accidentally found glass negatives) or virtual “performers", landscapes scenes (video games). In the latter case the proper the technical line up is digital shoot- sheet film - uv enlarging - plate of wet plate collodion is the proper technical sequence. Considering the outcome each and every take is unique and unrepeatable wet plate collodion or silver gelatine dry plate. Examining by taking a step back on the plates the borders of reality and virtuality are blurred for the viewer in the lack of antecedent only the given photos are provided. Stepping a bit closer the shots giving away the telltale small bits.

I WILL NOT COME TO TAKE... by Traci Marie Lee(Click on image for larger view)

Traci Marie Lee says of this body of work, "My own journey follows no such linear narrative. It started the moment I found the photograph but has meandered ever since, through uncharted research and to no obvious destination.

-TACITA DEAN,Girl Stowaway, 1994

In this body of work I am appropriating slivers of images, text, and artifacts from the familial archive. There is an obstructed rationale of what a photograph is and does, as well as a displacement of the contexts of photographic processes. Incorporating multiple image-making properties and practices, the process of how we contextualize a photograph's objectness and our associations in relationship to photographic material is exposed. The original content, the index, becomes secondary - taking its unaccustomed place on the peripheral of significance. Distinct passageways emerge and are found within the distillation of expectations and longings attached to any familial or institutional space.

Each individual work incorporates alternative processes, such as the kallitype and collodion, as well as various methods of collage. These mediums string together disparate images and artifacts to create an entirely new, complex image.

The success of the Archive represents only half of the material – the half that has survived. The matter lays somewhere in between what is present and what is missing. Perhaps these instances are the keys – the markers connecting bodies and identities, generations and histories; the physical indication of an unidentified connection."

Lee is a graduate of the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C., with a BFA in Fine Art Photography, as well as a Master in Fine Arts graduate with an MFA in Photography and Integrated Media from Lesley University College of Art & Design in Cambridge, MA. She is also the owner and photographer of Thread Photography - Fine Art Weddings.

In her work she is interested in the implications and consequences of the Snapshot and the Constructed Image on memory construction and preservation. The compulsion to excavate and curate leads to finding new methods of holding onto brief, constantly changing realities, as well as confronting her own tendencies and obsessive drive to collect, as a process of examining loss.